Reviews of : Meno by Plato PDF Book

Inside this Book – There are literally four characters in this play – but really there is a fifth and that fifth is Gorgias, the sophist. The question here is whether or not virtue can be taught. Well, eventually that is the question. Really we start off wondering what is virtue and Socrates admits he has no idea and has never met anyone who has had any idea either. Is virtue a kind of knowledge? It is obviously a good – being virtuous brings good things to you (an idea that might be more true in hoping than in lived experience) and so it does seem to be something that you would need to know to be able to exercise. But I found it interesting that Socrates doesn’t ever see virtue as something like health or beauty – things mentioned along the way in this argument.

Inside this book –Meno PDF Book by Plato – This is a fascinating dialogue – fascinating no less for its place in the sequence of dialogues leading to the death of Socrates. The themes presented here are clear and it is actually quite an easy read. But the questions are eternally complex – and just because they are stated clearly, makes them no less compelling or difficult to answer today. This really is one of the dialogues where you do get the feeling Socrates is presenting himself as the ‘he who knows nothing’ but is perpetually searching for an answer – rather than say The Republic, where the answers all seem to be pre-known by Socrates and the questioning is more going through the motions.